Copyright: (C) 1996-1997 Visio Corporation
Citation: (C) 1996-1997 Visio Corporation


Plumbing Template

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The Plumbing Template includes shapes such as pipes, valves, and fixtures for use in creating plumbing drawings.

For information about how a particular shape behaves, right-click the shape, then choose Shape Help.

Setting up your drawing environment

By default, the Plumbing Template opens with an unscaled drawing page in landscape (wide) orientation. The ruler and grid are set to Fine resolution, and the ruler zero point and grid origin are at the lower-left corner of the drawing page. You can change these settings at any time.

To change page settings and drawing scale:

1.	Choose File > Page Setup.

2.	On the Page Size tab and the Drawing Scale tab, choose the settings you want for the drawing size, the printed page size, and the scale. Then click OK.

To change the measurement units, click the Page Properties tab and choose the unit you want to use from the Measurement Units list, then click OK.

To change ruler and grid settings:

1.	Choose Tools > Ruler & Grid.

2.	In the Ruler & Grid dialog box, choose the settings you want for the ruler and grid resolution, and for the ruler zero point and grid origin.

You can change the grid origin only of fixed grids. To set a fixed grid, choose Fixed under Grid Spacing, then type the values you want for the minimum spacing of the grid lines.

3.	After you've finished adjusting the grid and ruler settings, click OK.

See also:

Rotating and resizing pages

Setting page orientation and scale

To create a plumbing plan:

1.	Use shapes from the General - Title Blocks stencil to add a title block and other reference information to the drawing. To open the Title Blocks stencil, choose File > Stencils > Annotation > General - Title Blocks.

2.	Use shapes from the Plumbing and Pipes And Valves stencils to lay out your plumbing components.

Use control handles, right-clicking, and other shape-specific features to configure the shapes the way you want.

3.	Use shapes from the General - Connectors stencil to create a single-line pipe between valves and other components. Glue each end of the connector to connection points on the other shapes.

The endpoints turn red, indicating that they're glued to the connection point.

4.	To add or replace existing text, select a shape, then type.

The text blocks of most plumbing shapes have a control handle you can drag to reposition text.

5.	Use shapes from the General - Annotations stencil to annotate the drawing.

Working with plumbing shapes

You can configure many plumbing shapes by right-clicking them and choosing the appropriate command from the shortcut menu. For example, right-click a Heater/Cooler shape to change it from a downward unit to a horizontal unit.

Using layers with plumbing drawings

A layer is a named category of shapes. When you create a plumbing drawing with the Plumbing Template, Visio Technical places the shapes on layers. For example, when you drop a Boiler shape, Visio Technical adds the shape to a Plumbing layer. To find out what layer a shape is assigned to, right-click the shape, then choose View > Shape Layer.

When shapes are assigned to separate layers, you can treat the layers of shapes separately. For example, you can hide or lock all layers except the one you want to work on or you can print shapes based on their layer assignments. You can also generate numeric or inventory reports for shapes on particular layers.

To view only one layer in a drawing:

1.	Choose View > Layer Properties.

2.	In the Layer Properties dialog box, under Visible, uncheck all the layers except the one you want to view, then click OK.

See also:

About layers

Incorporating a plumbing drawing into a space plan

If you want to add your plumbing diagram to an existing space plan, you can use a background page to create the plumbing drawing on top of the space plan walls. Your space plan can be a Visio Technical drawing, or you can import a drawing from another application. For example, if you created a space plan in AutoCAD, you can open the file in Visio Technical using the AutoCAD file converter. To open an AutoCAD file, choose File > Open. In the Open dialog box, under Files Of Type, choose AutoCAD (*.dwg, *.dxf).

To incorporate plumbing into a space plan:

1.	In an open space plan drawing, choose Insert > Page to create a new page.

2.	In the Page dialog box, type a name for the page, then click the Drawing Scale tab. On the Drawing Scale tab, under Drawing Scale, choose No Scale (1:1). Click OK twice.

3.	Choose Edit > Go To, then choose the page that contains space plan. Choose File > Page Setup. On the Page Properties tab, choose Background to make the space plan a background page.

4.	Choose View > Layer Properties. In the Layer Properties dialog box, click Visible to hide all the space plan layers. Under Visible, check Building Envelope to show only that layer.

5.	Choose Edit > Go To, then choose the plumbing page. Choose File > Page Setup. On the Page Properties tab, under Background, choose the page that contains the space plan. Visio Technical displays the walls of the space plan on the background.

6.	Drop plumbing shapes on the drawing page to create the plumbing for the space plan. When you finish creating the plumbing, choose View > Layer Properties. Click Visible to show all the layers.

See also:

Using backgrounds for common page elements

Working with shape properties

A custom property is a field in which you can store information. Shapes such as those on the Pipes And Valves stencils store the information in custom property fields. To change the custom properties of a valve shape, right-click the shape, then choose Shape > Custom Properties.

If you want to associate additional data with your plumbing shapes, you can run the Custom Properties Editor to add properties.

To run the Custom Properties Editor:

•	Choose Tools > Macro >  Custom Properties Editor.

See also:

Adding, editing, and deleting custom-property fields

Generating reports from properties

If you've associated custom-property data with your technical drawing shapes, you can run the Property Reporting Wizard to generate inventory or numerical reports based on the data. For example, you can create an inventory of all the In-line Valves in the drawing.

To run the Property Reporting Wizard:

•	Choose Tools > Property Report.

See also:

Creating reports from custom data

Linking shapes to other drawing pages, other files, or World Wide Web locations

You can add navigational links to any shape in your diagram, so that users of the diagram can right-click the shape to jump to separate drawing pages, separate files, or documents on an intranet or the Web. For example, you can link the drawing page to a document in which you maintain the drawing's parts list.

To add links to shapes:

•	Choose Insert > Hyperlink.

See also:

About using hyperlinks

Placing Visio drawings on the World Wide Web

You can easily convert a Visio drawing to a format Web browsers can read. Then you can distribute the drawing on an intranet or the Web.

See also:

Exporting shapes and drawings in .jpg or .gif format

Saving drawings as HTML pages


Generating reports from properties

Incorporating a plumbing drawing into a space plan

Linking shapes to other drawing pages, other files, or World Wide Web locations

Placing Visio drawings on the World Wide Web

Setting up your drawing environment

Using layers with plumbing drawings

Working with plumbing shapes

Working with shape properties